Monitoring

Kanako and Suwako are missing?

Seeing the beginning of the letter, Miketsu's heart tightened, her brows furrowed, sensing that something seemed amiss with Suwako and the others. She composed herself and continued reading the letter to understand the specific situation.

...

“Lady Uka... since your previous letter, I have prayed to Lady Kanako, asking where they were so I could find them. But Lady Kanako replied that there was no need; they had already found the culprit disturbing the ley lines and were about to resolve the issue. They would return soon after, telling me to wait peacefully at the shrine.”

“However, days passed, and Lady Kanako and the others still hadn't returned to the shrine. Out of worry, I prayed to them again, but received no response whatsoever. Repeating it several times yielded the same result. I became very flustered and, with no other option, could only seek your help through Harumutsu, requesting your assistance.”

...

After finishing Kaki's reply, Miketsu couldn't help but bite her fingertip. It was clear that Kanako and Suwako had likely tracked down the Tokoyo-no-Kami, but something unexpected had happened during the subjugation, leaving them in a dire situation. This prevented them from receiving their Miko's prayers, or they received them but couldn't respond.

Regardless, Kanako and the others' situation couldn't be good. If Miketsu wanted to help them, she needed to know their current location and understand their predicament.

Realizing this, Miketsu immediately picked up her brush to write a letter, asking Kaki if she knew where Kanako and Suwako had gone last. Shortly after, Kaki's brief reply arrived.

...

“My apologies, Lady Uka, in my last prayer conversation with Lady Kanako, she did not reveal where they were going. She only said they would resolve the ley line anomaly and return soon.”

...

“Resolve it soon and return... that's really raising a death flag.” Seeing Kaki's reply, Miketsu couldn't help but twitch her lips, grumbling inwardly.

Next, Miketsu found herself in a predicament. Kaki didn't know where Kanako and Suwako were, so Miketsu certainly wouldn't. How could she help or rescue them if she couldn't even confirm their location?

Thus, Miketsu fell into deep thought in her study, pondering how to find Kanako's location.

Clearly, the ley line anomaly was the primary clue. As long as she could find the source of the anomaly, she could find where Kanako and the others had gone, thus pinpointing their location. But the problem was, according to the Earthquake Catfish and Suwako, the source of the ley line anomaly should be in the east, at least in the Kanto region. That was quite a distance from Heian-kyo. If she went there now to slowly investigate, she didn't know if it would be too late.

Kanako and Suwako's situation might be extremely critical now, leaving no room for slow action on her part.

“Hmph... this is truly troublesome...”

Miketsu let out a long sigh, lamenting helplessly in her heart. She had originally planned to attend the celebration banquet after the space station's successful launch, but it seemed that was temporarily out of the question.

Wait... the space station? Suddenly, Miketsu seemed to remember something, slamming her hand on the table and rising. She quickly left her study and headed to the control center, finding Eirin still adjusting parameters there. She pulled her aside and questioned her.

“Hey, Eirin, can the space station detect the condition of the ley lines on the ground?”

“ley lines?” Hearing Miketsu's question, Eirin was slightly surprised. After a moment of thought, she replied to Miketsu.

“This space station was originally called the Monitoring Pavilion on the Lunar Capital side. Its initial purpose was to serve as the Lunar Capital's keenest eye, monitoring every movement on the earth. Weaponization was a later development. As the eye of the Lunar Capital, it certainly possesses the function of observing ley lines. The flow of the earth's energy is fundamental and important information.”

“It does? That's wonderful...” Hearing Eirin's reply, Miketsu breathed a sigh of relief, a slight smile gracing her lips. This made Eirin feel puzzled, and she couldn't help but ask.

“What's wrong, Uka-no-Mitama-no-Mikoto? Has something happened?”

“Hmm... it's a rather troublesome major issue. Oh, and Eirin, please inform Toyohime to take a few of us up first. I need to use the space station's observation capabilities.” Miketsu said slowly, while Eirin glanced at her and then quietly said.

“Hmph... fine. But afterwards, I hope you can explain the reason clearly to me. Otherwise, working overtime for no reason isn't exactly pleasant.”

“Haha... I'll explain that to you. Or rather, you'll probably know the reason once we're up there.” Miketsu chuckled lightly as she responded to Eirin.

After this, Miketsu and Eirin found Toyohime, explained their needs, and had her select a few moon rabbits. Then, Miketsu, Eirin, and the moon rabbits gathered, holding hands, directly or indirectly touching Toyohime.

Then, Toyohime closed her eyes and activated her ability, linking her consciousness to the coordinate array on the space station in outer space. With a flash of light, they vanished from the ground.

...

In outer space, the space station, having just returned to low Earth orbit, silently hovered in the dark cosmos.

Inside the space station's vast control hall, Miketsu and the others appeared in a flash of light. After returning to the familiar environment, Toyohime and the moon rabbits immediately began their work, activating the space station's array of ground detectors to survey the ley line conditions.

Miketsu, meanwhile, curiously walked to the giant window at the edge of the control hall, gazing down at the blue planet below. Seeing its diverse lands, vast oceans, and flowing white clouds, she couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. Although she had seen such scenes many times in various images in her previous life, she could finally witness it with her own eyes now.

“Detectors are operating normally, and the earth's energy flow can be successfully observed, Lady Uka, Master. Japan's ley line conditions are now displayed on the image.” Operating the instruments at hand, Toyohime called out to Miketsu and Eirin. Afterwards, they walked together to the Holographic Display Table in the center of the control hall.

On the table now, an image of the entire Japanese archipelago was displayed. Unlike the severely distorted and disproportionate maps Miketsu had found in the Onmyoryo previously, this image observed from outer space was incredibly precise, identical to what Miketsu had seen on maps in her past life.

On the holographic image, not only the outline and topography of the Japanese archipelago were displayed, but also countless intricate, crisscrossing lines. These lines had directional arrows and varied in color intensity.

These were clearly the ley lines located on the Japanese archipelago. The arrows indicated the direction of ley line flow, while the intensity of color represented the strength and magnitude of the ley line energy.

At a glance, Miketsu immediately noticed an unusually faint area in Kanto, where the ley line flow was remarkably weak.

“Is that... Shimosa Province?”